For the brief 30 minutes I watched Sunday football yesterday…I was reminded of the reason I gave it up years ago. It takes a lot of time, and you see so many things you wish you hadn’t.
Let’s make this brief, and clean. As is my custom on Sunday’s…I didn’t watch any of the NFL games.
I caught up on some desk work. Answered some correspondence. Did some chores around the house and property. And after a seven-hour drive to Youngstown and back on Saturday for the Dayton-Youngstown game, I took a nap.
That is, until about 3:30, when my phone rang and a friend on the other end said, “Hey, you gotta’ turn on the Bengals. The game is in overtime and they’re about to kick a field goal to win it. It’s been crazy.”
Of course, I don’t have to tell you that the Bengals didn’t win it, or about the misadventures of the kicking game.
I watched long enough to learn that Burrow and his brothers turned the ball over five times…that the offensive line still can’t protect the passer…and if the worst can happen it will happen to the Bengals, and they might not even challenge. Like the apparent touchdown that they didn’t bother to check…the one that would have won the game.
But I did watch enough television prior to kickoff to remind me of why I don’t watch the NFL anymore.
One, the question of how much, or how many countdowns to kickoff do you really need? Every network had a show of some kind over-analyzing the matchups and the ‘what-ifs’ of week one. I’m worn out before the game even starts!
Two, the question of how long. I spent thirty minutes waiting for the conclusion of overtime in the Bengals game, and while it was interesting to watch professionals struggle like high schoolers, that’s thirty minutes I’ll never get back for the sake of an anticipated Bengals win.
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Three, if you watch an entire NFL game you sit through at least an hour of commercials and timeouts every time the teams change possession. Think about this, if there was a separate channel for all the commercials (if that’s what you like to see), someone else could actually watch the game in about an hour and a half.
Four, the network promos of new shows in the fall…and more horrid police dramas of deranged individuals and atrocities on innocent people. It’s no wonder that there are so many shootings in America because some nut job watches an actor do it on CBS and NBC and decides that he can do that, too. And then maybe they’ll make a TV show about him.
Five, too many bad actors. I grow weary of watching the verbal taunting and trash-talking in the NFL. I understand that there’s a lot of competitive energy on the field, but I refuse to believe that personalities like Antonio Brown and Terrell Owens are good for football. To the contrary, I do believe that men like Paul Brown and Vince Lombardi were good for the game…because I grew up in an era of discipline and was taught self-control at every level from Little League on up.
Last, I was reminded again about how many sideline reporters there are, and how little they actually add to a broadcast – how little anyone really cares about whether they’re there or not. They have them with every level of football, from high school on up, and every one of them asks the same stupid question. “Coach, what do you have to do in the second half to turn things around?” Just once I’d like to hear the coach say, “Why would I tell you?”….or….”I think we need to lace our shoes up tighter.”
If Greg Hoard is reading this I know he’ll call and tell me I sound like an old man saying “Get off my lawn”.
That’s his opinion, but I did get my lawn mowed yesterday. I got a lot of other work done, as well. And I got a good nap.
And, just my opinion…I had a better day than the Bengals!
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